


Rational Dress in Vorbarr Sultana

by Zoya1416



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Alys Is mean, Backward Social Views, Forward Fashion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 07:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1543265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya1416/pseuds/Zoya1416
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Empress Laisa chooses a Komarran-style divided skirt for her wedding. Fashion changes ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rational Dress in Vorbarr Sultana

**Author's Note:**

> All Vorkosigan's is LMB's.

A week after after the Imperial Wedding, when everyone had caught up on sleep, Countess Vorkosigan descended the stairs of Vorkosigan House in an arresting new style of clothing. She wore a short dress, belted at the waist and falling to the knees, over trousers whose width was halfway between her old uniform and the divided skirts worn by the new Empress. 

It favored the beige of her Betan Survey Astronomical Survey uniform, although there were subtle colors of blue and green in the short dress. She smiled at Aral as she came into the breakfast room.

“How do you like it?”

“Very nice—nice view, too. I see from the timing that you've been planning this for awhile. Did Alys help you?”

Cordelia shuddered. “No, she did not. She gave me several lectures telling me that I shouldn't do it for the sake of public morals”—Aral snorted—“for the sake of being a good example for younger women, which I am, and finally, and most unlike her, because, “your figure, dear Cordelia, is not what it was in your youth, and this style does not suit you.”

He snorted again. “I love your figure, although it is a bit”—she started to glare at him—“more lush than it was when you were climbing around Sergyar with me. Did you have any of the younger girls in mine to wear it with you? Ekaterin, perhaps?”

She sighed. “No, not Ekaterin. She doesn't want to think about any type of new clothes until after she finishes this semester. She said her next purchase will be her wedding gown, and that will be enough stress.”

“The Koudelka girls?”

“I haven't shown it to them yet, but I hope at least one of them will. I'm showing it to you first, because if you truly hate this”—

“You'll what? Pretend to be happy? That's not you, dear Captain. I wish you had told me your plans before. You're usually not so reticent.”

“I wasn't going to wear this before the wedding, and then—this new style is something I don't feel as strongly about as I do other things—finally getting galactic medicine here, for one. I'm used to wearing skirts now—I put off the uniform before I ever came to see you at Vorkosigan Surleau.”

She laughed. “Where you, my dear, were setting a new fashion in terrible bright colored shirts.”

They looked at each other and she sat down, pulling up his hand to kiss it. “I'm grateful, still, every day, that I got to you before you flew drunk down the Dendarii Gorge again.”

He kissed her palm. “So am I, my love, so am I. Call Drou, I can't wait to hear what she says.”

Cordelia settled easily at Drou's table, where a fresh fruit platter was brought in. The nook was cool in the summer warmth. Drou's response, however, was somewhat anticlimactic. “Oh, Cordelia, I've been wearing my knit exercise suits for years around the house. The girls do, too. We've never worn anything out in public, of course.” She looked at Cordelia's new fashions again.

“If anything, this doesn't go far enough. We should have been wearing Betan style uniforms for years.”

Cordelia held up her hand firmly. “Not me. As Alys unkindly pointed out, a fitted uniform isn't a good choice for women my age. I'll be happy I can walk again without having to watch my hems. It will be good to get out more.”

Kareen and Martya came in talking about the bug-butter factory, which was in the process of moving out of Vorkosigan House.

“Oh, hi, Tante Cordelia. Love what you're wearing—isn't that a great idea, Martya?”

Matrya echoed her mother in saying that they should all have been wearing trousers for years, at which Cordelia said irritably, “If you wanted to wear them, you should have already been wearing them, not waiting for me.”

Kareen tossed her butter-yellow curls. 

“But now, Tante, since you've done it first, we can wear these for a week, a month maybe, and THEN wear only the trousers with a blouse. Although I think the skirt is more practical, if we can put some deep pockets in it"—the two butter bug investors went upstairs, discussing the needs of the business.

Cordelia and Drou glanced at each other and laughed.

“So you've waited thirty years for this, and they toss it off like nothing, and promise to outdo it in a month!”  


“We expect new generations to make progress, don't we? The old Guard who protested against Laisa, and now me, will have something more to complain about in a few weeks! Not fair to the poor fellows—” 

“—and women”

“Who won't know what hit them. Everyone is going to want trousers.”

“Oh, and wait, in two months it will be high summer, and you know how it gets so hot. The Betan girls—and the sarongs—will be here for vacations.”

“So next,” Drou laughed, “every girl and woman under thirty is going to want— SHORTS!”

“Alys is going to be sorry she crossed me,” said Cordelia. “I'll let everyone know Mme. Sonya's made my trouser-dress suit”—

“No one is going to say that. What did they call it wherever it came from?”

“Well, when it was invented on Earth—and you should see some of the ghastly things it replaced—they called it Rational Dress.”

“That's you! Tell your stylist”--

“If it takes off”--

“It will. It's like the girls said. Everyone has been waiting for this, even if we didn't know it. It's like—crystal, something?”

“Crystallization. Around some dirty particle, usually.”

“Oh, now Cordelia. Do you want some more coffee, or a glass of wine? Tell me about Mme. Sonya's. What other colors do you have it in? And what fabrics?”

And for a very unusual hour or so, the greatest reformer on Barrayar, and the formerly ferocious Imperial guardswoman chatted about fashion.


End file.
